For 30 years, Mr. Funky Fresh has helped guide Boston�s still-growing rap scene.
When he was a teenager, the Roxbury hip-hopper born Rusty Pendleton was known by another manage: Rusti the Toejammer, a moniker he earned for his unique ability to DJ with his feet. But for the past 20 age he�s at peace by the same call as the landmark Funky Fresh Records shop he owns in Dudley Square.
Now, with the music retail business shrinking day by day, Fresh is emergent as a front-line player, in endeavors including his radio show up on Touch 106.1-FM, an ambitious management company and a series of Boston Marathon musical showcases, including one Thursday night at the Middle East in Cambridge.
�I�m not new school or old school,� Fresh said at the posh Kendall Square hQ of his new company, PSG Entertainment Management Group. �I�m all school. You have to pay attention to what�s happening in this game if you want to survive.�
Despite dwindling CD gross sales, Fresh doesn�t regret his retail experience. His record book shop effected him as a rap muse in his residential district, and gave him a perspective on the music scene that fans and artists mightiness not see from crossways the counter.
�I look at this unanimous thing from a retail perspective,� he said. �I look at what sells. This music stage business is non about the music, it�s about the business.�
What doesn�t sell at Funky Fresh?
Boston artists. So to boost local endowment, Fresh has launched a number of projects to help local rappers and producers check to deliver the goods. Last year, he hosted a workshop titled �Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business� at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury. Recently, he switched the format of his radio show; now he spins quintet straight hours of Boston-only hip-hop every Friday and Saturday night.
�There are century,000 rappers now,� Fresh said. �Every nipper who comes into my store is a rapper. Don�t let me incorrect. Some cats out here make beautiful, great music. But afterward that, once they walk out of their studio, they�re stuck.�
Fresh�s latest and largest endeavor to elevate the bar in Boston is PSG, which he operates from Cambridge with longtime associates Kirt Gaines and Steven Smith. Guiding acts such as Beantown duo Scoe & Magnum, the PSG partners hope to instil the professionalism too many local artists lack.
�We�re victimisation our department of Energy and resources to develop artists and bring them from the ground stratum all the way to record deals,� Smith said.
According to Fresh, success is as simple as hustling and sticking out.
�The problem is that when someone like Soulja Boy pops up, people think it precisely happened that minute,� he aforementioned. �Everyone thinks that you can win overnight and you can�t. It took a lot of put to work for him to get 4 trillion people doing the dumbest dance on the planet.
�I�ve been about since the New Kids on the Block were still kids,� Fresh said. �Forget the decline in track record sales. I don�t recognize anything besides music, and when this is all you know, you give birth to do it right.�
The Boston Marathon Showcase Part 2, with Scoe & Magnum, City Slickers, Usual Suspektz, Man Terror, Millyz, Sheek, Dre Robinson, Lou Armstrong & The Hitmakerz, Frankie Wainwright & Team 220, Thursday night at the Middle East, Cambridge. Tickets: $12 in bring forward, $15 day of show; 617-864-EAST.
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